Louder House
by IguessIwritestuff
Summary: Fast-forward four years. Stresses of college, relationships, powering through the end of high school...
1. We're Literally Having a Baby pt 1

It was a Saturday in April when Rita and Lynn Sr. received the fate-changing phone call from their eldest daughter. Lori had just turned twenty-one, going into her senior year of undergraduate school that August. She'd been living with her boyfriend of going on five years, a certain Roberto Santiago, who, while still working multiple odd jobs, had found himself a managerial position at an above-par pizza restaurant. Lincoln had spotted his parents taking the call into their bedroom as he nonchalantly descended the stairs to get a glass of water, and then forgot about the water altogether. Even though it was about five AM, he knocked on his sisters' doors and herded the remaining seven girls who lived at home into the bathroom. And it was needless to say that Luan, along with all of her younger siblings, flocked around the air vent in the bathroom to hear what was happening that might change their lives.

"Can you hear anything?"

"Someone's on my foot."

"You're wearing slippers, stupid."

"What's going on?"

"This had better be good. You interrupted my beauty sleep for thi-"

"Shut. Up." Lynn hissed, leaning up against the vent again. "I can't hear anything if you're all talking, so how about you zip it before I make you a special breakfast of-"

"Woooooah, Lynn. Calm down." Lincoln whispered, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder, and quickly retracting it when she shot him a look of disdain. "Just tell us what you hear." Lynn rubbed at her eyes, blinking and yawning a couple of times before pressing her ear to the vent again.

"Lori, honey, this is a big deal." Rita said quietly, and her husband's voice mumbled something in a quiet murmur. It wasn't quite loud enough to hear.

Rita spoke again. "Yes, sweetheart, I know that Bobby is going to be a wonderful father, but that doesn't mean..."

Lynn's eyes went wide, the color completely drained from her face, and she scooted away from the vent, promptly hugging her knees into her chest. Luan moved over beside her, looking at her little sister's terrified expression and gently rubbing her back in consolation. The conversation had clearly been meant to be private, and was definitely...important. Lynn's head fell against her older sister's shoulder, and she closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

"What did you hear?" Luan asked quietly, and her sister's eyes opened, looking around the room. After another long, deep breath, the words were spoken.

"Lori's pregnant."

A few of the younger girls exchanged an awkward glance, but they knew what the word meant, (Well, maybe except for a five-year-old Lily). It meant Lori was going to have a baby, and judging by the chilled looks on the older siblings' faces, it was scary. Lynn's face still hadn't regained color, and thus her freckles stood out against her pale complexion, giving off an almost...haunting look to the expression on her face. Luan was gently running her fingers through her younger sister's tangled shoulder-length hair, mumbling nothings under her breath that were a mix of puns and reassuring words. Lincoln just looked genuinely petrified, and at the same time was trying to calm down anyone younger than Lucy because the oldest available sisters were a little preoccupied.

"You know, Mom and Dad are probably going to pull the bun out of the oven and tell us later today, or at least this week." Luan joked, earning herself a death glare from an obviously annoyed Lynn. "What? I thought it was a good pun. Even though I'm not at my best before seven in the morning."

Lincoln took over, leading the conversation where it had initially been headed. "Should we tell them that we already know?" he asked, waiting for any sister's response.

"Yeah, because that's gonna go SO well." Lynn rolled her eyes. "Hey Mom, hey Dad, guess what we heard because we were spying on you at whatever the hell time it is in the morning?"

"Censor." Luan warned, gesturing towards the younger kids, and getting a groan out of Lynn. The color was slowly coming back to the athlete's face, which made Luan sigh in relief.

"The correct term would be eavethdropping." Lisa contributed, scribbling something down on her little notepad. "And Lynn may be correct. The poschibility for parental freak-out is high, asch to be exschpected." The eight-year-old proudly displayed a poorly-drawn pie chart, divided into a grand total of three sections. The sections had respectively been labeled 'freak-out', 'calm reaction', and 'margin of error'. Despite the 'margin of error' taking up five percent of the graph, 'freak out' was nearing eighty percent, which didn't necessarily seem consoling.

"Yes!" Lynn proclaimed, earning herself a couple of odd looks. "I heard 'Lynn is right' and that's all I care about." she explained, and Lisa let out an exasperated puff of breath.

"You schould probably care more about the faschual evidence schupporthing your claim." the little girl retorted, noticing the blank look on her sister's face. "And where, may I aschk, did you locate a taquito in the lavatorial faschility at five twenty-schix ante meridum?"

Lynn shrugged. "Beats me. Sometimes the world just gives you a taquito, and it's best not to question it. Yo Lan, you want to split this?" Lana eagerly nodded, and Lynn began pulling the cylindrical item in half.

Luan pulled the taquito out of her sister's grasp, making a face. "Lynnie, there's a wad of hair inside it. Please don't eat taquitos you find in the bathroom." Sometimes Luan couldn't believe the things she had to explain to this specific sister. Lynn had just turned seventeen that February. She should know not to trust random taquitos she found in the bathroom by now, shouldn't she?

"Hey, anyone younger than twelve, go back to bed. The big kids need to have a talk." Luan instructed, and watched as the twins walked off in one direction mumbling things to each other, and Lily grabbed Lisa's hand and walked towards another door. Luan waited until both doors had clicked shut before folding her hands in her lap and turning to her sister and brother.

"And then there were three." Lynn mumbled, nearly having a heart attack when she realized Lucy was standing next to her.

"You forgot about me." the gothic girl commented, and as Lincoln and Luan stammered apologies Lynn raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you still a kid? Go back to bed, Luce." the athlete commented, trying to pull her hair back into a ponytail and grumbling when it slipped from her grasp and brushed up against the tops of her almost-bare shoulders. She still wasn't quite used to the length, or lack thereof.

"Luan said anyone under twelve. I've been twelve since December." Lucy monotonously replied, and Luan shrugged, exchanging a glance with Lincoln. Lynn crossed her arms, looking at her sister's and brother inquisitively.

"Welcome to the Older Siblings' Club, then." Luan smiled, the fluorescent bathroom light reflecting off of her braces and accidentally shining into Lincoln's eyes.

"Luan, mouth metal." Lincoln shielded his eyes, and Luan quickly shifted to an angle where her braces hopefully wouldn't blind anyone. Two more months, Dr. Feinstein had said. Granted, he'd said that three years ago too, but she wasn't losing hope just yet.

"Are we sure Lucy's old enough?" Lynn protested. "I mean, there's definitely some PG-13 content in these meetings. And she's only 12. Maybe thi-"

Luan ruffled her sister's hair. "Awwww. You don't want your baby sister to grow up." she commented, and Lynn shoved her hand off.

"Yeah, right! I don't care. Whatever." Lynn muttered, rolling her chocolate eyes as if to prove a point. It wasn't that she didn't want Lucy to...grow up or anything. That was ridiculous. It was just that...there was some inappropriate content. That was it. That was everything. Obviously. Like she cared.

"So, Lori's...wow." Lincoln commented to break the tension. "We're gonna be...aunts and an uncle in a few months."

Nobody said anything in reply. It resonated in the back of their minds like a chilling secret, which, in a way, it sort of was. And even without speaking, they came to a conclusion that they weren't even going to think about telling their parents they knew.

But that didn't mean Rita and Lynn Sr. weren't going to find out.


	2. We're Literally Having a Baby pt 2

Luan had trouble falling back asleep after the meeting in the bathroom. Lori...a parent. She wasn't even married yet! Lori had always seemed so on top of these kind of things, and now she wasn't even finished with college, having a BABY! Lori had such a strict path that she wanted to follow through her life. She was so organized that she'd actually made a chart, which when asked what she wanted to do for college she had proudly presented to their parents. College, graduate school, business school, and by the time she was thirty she would be the CEO of a large company.

Getting pregnant must have been an accident. There was no way Lori was intentionally straying from her plan. She'd had it all mapped out since she was eleven. Luan remembered looking at how organized the chart was and being absolutely awestruck. It was like a board game, except with no choices. The little Lori figurine would continue to move along the board as planned. That was the way it had always been.

She didn't need to be so stressed about this, especially not on top of her own set of worries. She was worried enough about college letters herself. Yes, she'd gotten replies from most of the colleges she applied to, but not her top choice school. They really needed to get their act together. It was April, and she graduated in early June. And after that June...well, she wasn't really sure she trusted Lynn to be in charge of the oldest-sibling position in the house. She'd proven herself, once again, to be nothing more than an overgrown child, just half an hour ago. Luan knew that it wouldn't be half as bad as she thought it would, but the only thing she could picture was the little ones screaming as Lynn barreled seventy miles an hour down the highway towards their schools, not even stopping but just slowing down for them to get out of the car. Not to mention Lynn's swearing habit might catch on without Luan there to warn her to turn on her censor in front of the younger kids. She'd already heard a couple of her baby sisters repeating a couple of the words.

Ugh. She sighed, shaking her head. She couldn't really be more concerned about Lynn than college, could she? Luan knew in her heart that her little sister was going to be fine, but she couldn't shake the feeling of nostalgia that came with leaving the car keys and the title of 'Oldest Loud Sibling' with someone so irresponsible. Luan may have only been ten months older, but clearly that ten months had made quite a difference.

Luan tended to worry about her siblings more than herself. That must be why she was so scared for Lori having her meticulous plan thrown off course, or why she still wasn't completely used to having her own room after Luna had left. Not to mention how worried she was about Lynn having to pick up where Luan had left off on teaching Lincoln to drive, or Lucy entering high school in a couple of years, or...well, maybe she was just worried about a lot of things.

She knew growing up was part of life for her little sisters and brother, but she just...wanted to be there to help. Luan hadn't even had a single opportunity to give dating advice, not that she knew a lot about dating herself. To be fair, Lucy did somewhat have a kind of strange relationship (Luan wasn't sure if they were dating or not), but she'd never talk to anyone other than her tomboyish roommate about him. Which meant Luan had been counting on Lynn to grow out of the 'boys are gross' phase, but it had just been hope. Lynn had quite literally punched the last boy who tried to flirt with her. As petty as it was, she was a little jealous. She was leaving right as the twins might start gaining interest in boys, not to mention Lucy's relationship might become official, and they'd probably get a lot of generic Yahoo answers advice from Lynn and-

Maybe Luan was overthinking this. All of this. As reckless as Lynn was, she was, for the most part, harmless. And Lori wouldn't seriously...do something that life-changing without thinking about it at least a little.

As she closed her eyes to gain much needed sleep, her alarm clock started ringing. She pushed the button to make the sound turn off, allowing herself to relax. Why was it going off on Sunday morning anyways? She had time to sleep. It was only seven-ish or so. Her hazel eyes finally closed, allowing for a final moment of peace.

...And then, two hours later, her alarm went off again. Hadn't she just turned that off? She yawned, looking over at the clock, and groggily rubbing her eyes. NINE THIRTY?

"Crap." the eighteen-year-old allowed herself to mumble under her breath, shoving her feet into her slippers and racing over towards her closet. She had a party to perform at today! Not to mention, she had Linc's weekly driving lesson...she was forgetting something. Oh no, what was it?

"HEY, YOU'VE GOTTA BE IN THE CAR IN TEN MINUTES IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO MISS MY GAME!" Lynn pounded on the door, screaming. Luan pulled a skirt out of the closet, shaking her head and putting it back. That would be what she'd forgotten. Just to make it better, leave it to Lynn to give her ten minutes' notice.

Luan pulled her shirt over her head, tugged on a pair of shorts, and since she was running a little short on time, she grabbed a headband and haphazardly tried to make her hair look a little less disheveled. She looked in the little mirror above her desk, sighing. She looked fifteen again, but she wasn't about to let it bother her because there was no way in hel-icopter that Lynn was driving.

As she raced out to the car, keys in hand, it occurred to Luan that she hadn't even eaten breakfast. She checked her watch, and shook her head. There was no time. She stuck the keys in the ignition, trying to start the car a grand total of four times before the engine began roaring. Within a minute, her siblings began pouring into the car, the final one to arrive being the very sister who had complained about being late. She stood on the porch, happily eating a waffle, and waved.

"Deep breaths." Luan mumbled to herself, and when that didn't work she promptly slammed on the horn. There was no time for this.


	3. We're Literally Having a Baby pt 3

Lynn was trying to enjoy her waffle. She'd spent a good three minutes making the aforementioned waffle, not to mention waiting for it to cool down enough to pick it up and bring it out into the porch where she could happily eat in peace and stare out at a beautiful day. She took a big, satisfying bite, letting the taste of the generic toaster waffle melt in her mouth. God, it was good. Lynn loved food.

And then all of her waffle fantasies were promptly shot to waffle hell by the obnoxious sound of the blaring car horn. Lynn looked over at her sister, mouthing "What the hell?" and throwing up her hands before sulkily trudging over towards the car. She pulled on the handle to the passenger's side door, climbing into the seat and crossing her feet on the dashboard defiantly. Luan looked over at her, and Lynn pretended to be staring at something outside her window. There wasn't really anything interesting, but she knew her sisters and brother would automatically assume it was just Lynn zoning out again, as she seemed to do so often because apparently she didn't have the 'mental capacity' or something for multiple large amounts of information at a time. That was an interesting tree. Some of the leaves were a different shade of green than the others.

"Seatbelt." Luan instructed, and Lynn made sure to tediously drag out pulling on the buckle and pushing it down into the other side until it made the satisfying click. She followed it by rolling her eyes, taking another bite of her waffle, which now didn't taste as good. That led Lynn's mind on another tangent. Had Luan eaten breakfast? Lynn tried to think about it, and she probably hadn't, not under the time constraints. This was typical. Sometimes she was so overwhelmed that she completely forgot to feed herself. Lynn usually kept protein bars in her bag for after practice, but maybe this was more important. Even if Luan HAD honked the horn at her for a good minute.

"Dude, eat." Lynn said, pulling a peanut-butter protein bar from a cluttered side pocket of her duffel bag, opening the wrapper, and handing it to her older sister. Luan gratefully took the protein bar, skillfully maneuvering the steering wheel with a single hand as she took a large, satisfying bite. Sometimes Lynn wished she was a good enough driver to be able to multitask. It wasn't a secret around the Loud family that Lynn was quite possibly a worse driver than Leni, and that...sorta hurt. Not that Lynn would let her dumb feelings get in the way of her confidence. Maybe she wasn't the greatest driver. At least she got everyone where they needed to be in one piece, in record time, if she might add.

Lynn looked back at her younger siblings, chattering away in the back seats. They were the main reason she worried about her driving. She'd never forgive herself if anything happened. How had her older sisters done this? How were they all so...confident? So...safe? So...grown up? Lynn was going to be a legal adult in less than a year and she could still barely remember how to calculate the slope of a line, which was eighth grade math.

"Thank you." Luan said, putting her wrapper in Lynn's hand. Lynn shoved it into another pocket. She'd clean out her bag later, probably. She'd only been meaning to for three years. Maybe tomorrow.

"No problem." Lynn cleared her throat, looking at her cleats. "You, uh...you've gotta remember to eat, dude." Forgetting to eat. That worried her so much. Obviously she was worried about Luan, but also a little bit for herself. If her calm and collected sister was so stressed that she forgot about EATING, what would happen next year when Lynn was in charge? Would she not shower? Not drink? Not MOVE?

"Lynnie." Luan tapped her shoulder. "You were dozing off again. We're here." Lynn shook her head and looked around, realizing they were in fact at her soccer field. She grabbed her duffel bag quietly, racing over towards the field to put on her shin guards and take a long drink of water. Staying hydrated was important to performing well.

Within a few seconds her teammate/best friend Margo was sitting beside her, crossing her legs and smiling as she pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail. "You look depressed. Or tired." Margo said bluntly, and Lynn let her head fall into her friend's shoulder.

"A lot happened last night." Lynn replied, taking a deep breath. "Lori's p-"

She was cut off mid-sentence by their coach blowing her whistle. "Come on, ladies, we don't have all day for your little gossip session!" the woman yelled. Lynn considered shooting her a certain finger and telling her to wait, but then she remembered her little brother and sisters were in the audience, not to mention if she did Luan might possibly murder her for such a display of profanity.

So instead, Lynn mumbled, "Keep your damn socks on, we're coming."

The game, up until a few minutes before halftime, was uneventful. Lynn was slightly distracted, but that didn't keep her from scoring five out of her team's seven goals. She almost scored six, but her eye caught on a familiar car pulling into the parking lot, and she stopped for a minute, blinking a couple of times to make sure it was really there. A dark-haired man exited the driver's door, walking around to the other side to help a clearly pregnant blonde woman out of the car. They then proceeded to begin kissing.

"LOUD!" The coach yelled, freeing Lynn from her thoughts. "What the hell do you think you're doing? The Hockers have had the ball for five minutes! You know what, McLean, you're in. And you," the coach made a display of dramatically pointing at Lynn, and then the bench. Lynn opened her mouth to say something, but promptly forgot what she was about to say because she ended up taking a soccer ball to the gut in the following second.

She looked over at the stands, and sure enough, the people from the car looked just as familiar as they had when she'd seen them the first time. And now they were watching possibly the worst moment of her soccer career.


	4. We're Literally Having a Baby pt 4

Lincoln knew Lynn was probably in a completely piss-poor mood because her team had lost by one goal. Lynn hated losing, but it was worse when she had been so close to winning. Not to mention, she hadn't shut up about it for the past ten minutes as she sulkily sat in the stands with her siblings.

"She BENCHED me. She fu-" Lynn started, earning herself a death glare from Luan, "-dging benched me." Lynn closed her eyes and took a clearly forced, hasty breath. "I'm sorry, but what the hell did I do? I saw LORI ARRIVING and I was a little thrown off. I took like...fifteen seconds to look. Maybe not even. What's so damn wrong with that? I honestly don't even care that some asshole kicked the ball at me when I was leaving the field. I swear to God I-"

Luan covered her mouth, furrowing her eyebrows. "You're not going to be swearing anything because you've already said enough curse words in front of the little girls. Lynn, calm the heck down. It's one game." Lynn muttered something most likely profane behind Luan's hand, and Lincoln let out a sigh, uncovering Lily's ears.

He knew that there was really no way to calm Lynn down. They had to let the anger take its course, which sometimes was a couple hours and sometimes even a full week. That didn't mean the Loud family hadn't valiantly tried time and time again. The only one who seemed to have any effect was Lucy, who was thankfully making her way over from talking to Lori and Bobby. The couple also appeared to be following her over towards the family.

Lucy sat down next to Lynn, loudly sighing. She mumbled something quietly, and Lincoln could have sworn Lynn let out a small laugh. They were definitely close. Arguably some of the closest siblings in the family, despite having the largest age gap between all of the girls who shared rooms. Lincoln felt something shift beside him, and looked over to see Lori. He shot her an awkward smile, before realizing it must look strange and ceasing the action.

"You're literally a foot taller than the last time I saw you." she smiled in return, and Lincoln shrugged. He was tall, but it was mostly the length of his lanky limbs. Lynn liked to tease him and say his arms resembled noodles, and she wasn't exactly wrong. He didn't necessarily have a lot of muscle.

"I guess." he replied, and Lori ruffled his hair like she'd done when they were little.

"Lynn's mad at me for coming to her game, isn't she?" Lori asked, and Lincoln couldn't bring himself to speak. "I just wanted to surprise her. I wanted to surprise all of you, actually." Lori put a hand on her stomach, gently rubbing in a circular motion before folding her hands in her lap.

Lincoln sighed, looking up at Lucy trying to calm down her raging older sister. "She'll...get over it." he replied, because in all honesty he knew Lynn was awful at holding grudges. Come dinner time, she'd be at the table like nothing had happened, shoveling an insane amount of food into her tiny body until it looked like she might explode. As long as nobody brought up her game for the next week, all would be peaceful.

"Thank God she's outgrown that phase where she didn't talk to me for a week after I suggested she should wear a dress to her own birthday party." Lori laughed. "As much as I love supporting all of you, I'm not here just because of a soccer game. I have something to tell you that might literally change all of our lives."

Lori took a deep breath, blowing the air out through pursed lips slowly and gently. "Bobby and I are having a baby." she whispered, sitting back and clearly waiting for her little brother's reaction. Lincoln showed no signs of surprise. He'd been the one to overhear the call in the first place.

"Lori, I...I know. We...we actually all know." Lincoln replied, looking over at his sister. "We overheard the phone call earlier through the bathroom vent, and, you know, it's kinda obvious." Lincoln gestured to her stomach, which was clearly not its normal size. "Don't tell the sisters I told you this. They'd kill me."

He watched Lori's facial expression. She stayed fairly blank-faced, looking at him almost inquisitively. Lincoln tugged on the edge of his sleeve, worried that bluntly putting it out that they all knew was the right decision. Had his comment about it being obvious been offensive? Maybe he was spending too much time around Lynn, who obviously had no problems speaking her thoughts at will. Oh god, what if she wasn't even far enough along with the pregnancy for it to be obvious? Lincoln knew girls tended to be sensitive about those kind of comments.

Lori remained fairly stone-faced, and didn't dignify his comment with a response. "Hey, Lucy? Let me talk to her." Lori called up, standing up and preparing to walk up the few rows of bleachers separating them.

Maybe he had accidentally offended her.


	5. WLHAB part 5

Lucy was a very...solitary person. So being locked out of her own room was not exactly something she was loving. She knew than Lynn needed some time alone, especially to cool down from evicting her soccer team from their potential spot in the Michigan state finals. However, Lucy also knew that when Lynn was upset, she liked to read, because she claimed it "cleared her mind", which didn't make any sense, but Lucy had no intent of questioning it. The problem was that nearest book was most likely Lucy's poetry journal, and there were some things in there that the twelve-year-old would prefer to keep to herself.

So she continued to repeatedly knock on the door. Technically, nobody was allowed to lock the doors in the Loud house, but that didn't mean people didn't anyways. And it also wasn't the first time Lucy had been locked out of her own room. There was a two-year period where a thirteen-to-fourteen-year-old Lynn had locked Lucy out of the room every morning because she was embarrassed by a certain training bra that she claimed was the bane of her existence. But...Lynn claimed a lot of things were the 'bane of her existence'. Recently, the bane of her existence was Brussels sprouts.

Lynn must have been wearing headphones, Lucy concluded, and let out a long sigh. Did Luan still have that lock-picking kit from her Houdini phase? It hadn't worked that well, but it had at least gotten a few of the doorknobs in the house unstuck.

It wasn't so much that Lucy was worried about Lynn reading her journal and knowing that Rocky had kissed her a couple of weeks ago. It was the fact that Lucy had written about twenty terribly mushy love poems, and Lynn didn't exactly have a 'sweet and sensitive' side. Not to mention, she couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it.

The kiss had kind of just come out of nowhere. They were working on a science project up in his bedroom, not that much work was getting done between the bad jokes (Lucy might have stolen a few from Luan's joke books) and tickle fighting, and suddenly he'd looked over and asked if he could kiss her. Lucy wasn't great with words even when she wasn't startled, so she'd just sort of...nodded, and then he'd kissed her, and suddenly Lucy understood exactly what Lori had been going on about for the past five years or so. Granted, after half a second or so Rocky had stumbled backwards and began mumbling an apology, and then they actually worked on their science project, but Lucy had looked up a few times and noticed a giant, goofy grin plastered across his face.

The following week, they'd been on spring break, and this past week at school they'd sort of...avoided each other. Lucy wasn't sure what that meant. She knew that the kiss was probably supposed to be kept secret, because that was the approach Rocky seemed to be taking. She couldn't figure out to save her life why they hadn't talked about it a single time, though. That seemed like something they would have coordinated hall passes on and talked about already in the clean girls' bathroom on the first floor. That seemed to be where they held all of their important conversations lately.

Needless to say, Lucy's journal had been jam-packed with her romance poems, but also poems about her confusion. If they hadn't talked about it, had the kiss been bad? She didn't think so, but Lucy also didn't have any standards. She didn't think Rocky did either. They'd both been smiling afterwards, so she had assumed it was good, but she really couldn't tell. Lucy hadn't really thought much about her first kiss before it happened, but now it couldn't seem to leave her mind. And in her mind, it had been perfect. Sort of like the resolution of a Princess Pony comic book. Rainbows and clouds shaped like hearts and all around the girliest, stupidest feeling Lucy could imagine.

Lori had told the entire family about her first kiss when she was fourteen. It was some random boy named Jeremy or John or something...Lucy didn't really remember because she'd been five and Lynn had been ten and for some reason Lynn's philosophy that kissing was gross has resonated in little Lucy's mind. Lori had also told the family about the first time she kissed Bobby, and now they were going to have a baby not even five years later. Was that an unspoken rule? When you kiss someone who you think could possibly be your eternal soulmate (not that...Lucy thought anything about soulmates...no way...ha...ha...they were twelve) did you have a baby five years later? It seemed like a stupid assumption, but she wasn't going to rule anything out yet.

Lucy also knew that it was silly to assume Lynn had any common decency and would respect her privacy. She'd read Lucy's journal before- with Lucy in the room. Sometimes Lucy wanted to keep her thoughts, which she'd poured down onto paper with her knowledge of prose, private.

So she continued to pound on their bedroom door, and hope that Lynn's convoluted sense of morality would somehow convince her it was a bad idea to read other people's journals.


	6. WLHAB Part 6

**A/N: AN UPDATE?! From ME?! Unheard of.**

 _Don't get involved_ , Lana told herself. She'd told herself that after the soccer match when they'd gone for pizza, and she'd watched her angry older sister eat three-fourths of a meat-lovers' pizza, disgust seeping out towards Lori with every bite Lynn took. It hurt Lana's fragile little heart to watch her sister eat dead animal carcass without even thinking about what had happened to those poor, defenseless animals, but then again, she'd only become a vegetarian herself last month, so she wasn't as innocent as she'd like to pretend to be.

Lana had also told herself not to get involved on the car ride home, sticking in the headphones she'd found in one of Vanzilla's cupholders to tune out Lynn's monotonous complaining about how _if Lori just could have arrived about ten seconds later, she could have scored a goal and made it to the state finals and not butchered her entire team's chances because she was distracted._ It seemed petty for Lynn to blame her own failure on someone else, and it seemed like an excuse for her to not admit to what she had done wrong. Although, Lana herself had blamed quite a few plumbing mishaps on her sisters before, so she understood where Lynn's mindset was coming from.

Now, they'd been home for an hour, and Lana was seriously fighting not getting involved. She'd seen Lynn stomp into her bedroom, locking the door and thus locking Lucy out of their shared space, and Lucy did not look thrilled at the outcome. If there was one thing Lana knew about the relationship between those two particular sisters, it was that they seemed to be good at calming each other down, which was exactly what Lynn needed at the moment. So, Lana found herself digging under her bed for her toolbox, locating the correct screwdriver (she'd taken off many doorknobs before, she just wasn't so great at putting hem back on yet, which had been accepted in the household as "faulty doorknobs") and brandishing it like a weapon. She could hear the loud music blaring out of Lynn's headphones even through the wall, and Lana knew that meant Lucy had absolutely no hope of getting in. Lana clutched the handle of her screwdriver tightly. She wasn't sure she could just leave them alone. It wasn't her business, and she really shouldn't get involved, but it was her nature as a handyman - or, rather, WOMAN - to fix things.

"What are you doing?" Lana heard, looking across the room at her twin sister. "You look like you're going to stab someone with that." Lana shrugged, receiving her sister's signature smirk in response. "If I were you I wouldn't mess with Lynn or Lucy right now. Lynn is super pissed, and Lucy's probably trying to summon the devil or something to unlock that door."

Lana sighed loudly, dropping the screwdriver onto her bed. "I know, but I just want to fix it. A good machine has all working parts, and some of the parts in our family aren't working, something's gonna break." She laid back against the headboard of her bed, taking off her red cap and hanging it on one of her bedposts. "And we're already fixing things with a lot of duct tape here."

Lola's fingers ran through her hair, making sure there were no more knots in it before she separated it into sections. "Lana, you've got to learn to leave people alone. They don't want you sticking your nosy nose in their business any more than you want them in yours." Lola pulled a section of hair over a second section, beginning the process of a complicated type of braid she'd taught herself to do a few weeks before. "Also, they lock each other out of their room ALL the time. It's super petty, but it's also kind of funny."

Lana stared at the glow-in-the-dark reptile stickers she'd somehow put on the ceiling. "I guess." she mumbled, sitting up and glancing over at her sister. "Do you think we're going to be like that when we're teenagers? All weird and hormonal and grumpy all the time?" Lola made a face, tying off the end of her braid with a hair elastic she pulled off of her wrist.

"Ew, I hope not. Have you SEEN Lynn make a sandwich?" her twin sister replied, sitting down on her own bed. "I saw her eat a mustard and peanut-butter sandwich once and it actually made me GAG."

Lana opened the lid to Hopps' cage, picking him up gently and stroking the frog's little head. "No, not that. I mean...you know, mean to each other." The frog's amber eyes stared into Lana's blue ones, and she found herself smiling down at the creature. Hopps would never be mean to her. He loved her for who she was, and probably also because she fed him fresh cricket corpses every day. Man, frogs really had good lives, they didn't have to worry about angry sisters or going into the sixth grade in September or even wearing clothes. All they had to do was eat bugs, jump around, and play in the rain and mud. Sometimes Lana really wished she was a frog.

"Ugh, I don't know, Lana, probably." Lola rolled her eyes, laying back on her bed and holding their shared tablet in front of her face. "All I really care about right now is the Junior Miss Michigan pageant, and all of these girls are SO pretty. This is going to be super hard. I'm probably already getting wrinkles stressing about it." Lana didn't think so, she knew her sister well enough to know that Lola could win whatever she set her mind to, but ever since Lola's discovery of social media, she'd begun holding herself to this...certain standard. It made Lana kind of sad, that her sister held herself to standards set by other people who probably didn't even look the way they did in those photos in real life. They were ten years old and she was worried about her skin wrinkling already. That probably wasn't healthy...unless you were a frog.

"Frogs are wrinkly and they're still adorable." Lana said, and Lola laid the tablet down on her stomach to shoot her sister a look of disgust. Had she said something wrong? Lana loved frogs. And it was true. They WERE wrinkly, and they had these beautiful little folds of smooth, bumpy skin. In Lana's eyes, frogs were gorgeous.

"Ew, Lana." Lola scoffed. "Unless the frog is a prince and he's here to kiss me and carry me away to be a princess, that's disgusting." Lola propped the tablet back up on her stomach, sighing as she scrolled through photos. "I wish I was that good at makeup," she mumbled, capturing herself in her own little technological world.

"Don't listen to her," Lana assured Hopps, rubbing the top of his little head and hearing him croak in pleasure. "I think you're beautiful."


	7. WLHAB 7

While scrolling through muted (so she wouldn't bother Lana and her frog prince) videos of beauty gurus sharing their makeup secrets, it crossed Lola's mind that Lori was downstairs, probably assuming that her younger sisters didn't care that she was home, or that they were mad at her. Lola, as a competitive person herself, could admit that Lynn had a right to be mad, but it was just so _selfish_ of her to go hide in her room because she was pissed off. _What a bitchy move_ , Lola thought, setting the tablet down next to her and inspecting the chipping polish on her nails. Damn, she needed a manicure.

Lola let out a sigh, propping herself up against the soft pillows on her bed. It wasn't right of her to call her sister bitchy, and she felt bad about thinking it, but there really wasn't any other word for what was happening. Lori was _pregnant_ , and even though earlier that morning Lynn had seemed as concerned as anyone, simply because of a stupid soccer game she was behaving like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Lori was probably downstairs, either pissed off or confused, and she had every right to be. Lola hated emotions. Guilt, especially. It made her feel disgusting inside, and it made her want to rectify this petty mess between her sisters instead of sitting back and watching drama unfold like she'd usually love to do.

It wasn't that Lola didn't care. In fact, she cared a lot more than she'd ever let on. Right now, though, Lola was mostly focused on her own problems. For example, how her mother wouldn't let her wear a full face of makeup to school, even though Luan was allowed to (and probably shouldn't be, not with the "looks" she was creating). True, Lola was glad she wasn't old enough to start getting disgusting pimples like her older siblings, and she already had a skincare routine, so hopefully she'd never get those gross blemishes. And she didn't _need_ to shave her legs, because she was only a kid, but she was still outraged that her mother wouldn't allow it.

To be fair, Lola did know she was pretty. It was no shock to her when she received the most Valentines from the boys in her class, or even that she'd started talking to a particularly cute seventh grader who came to pick up his fourth-grade brother from the elementary school every day. In fact, Lola was quite comfortable in her own skin until she'd been stupid enough to lie about her age to create that damn Instagram account, and post a few selfies, where she promptly got comments to "follow this person!" and "follow that person!". Naturally, she found herself migrating to the pages of beauty gurus and makeup artists. These gorgeous women and teenagers made Lola a bit insecure, and not about her makeup, she could do everything they could in those videos, but about ridiculous things like her flat chest. Even though she was TEN, and did know that one day she would have boobs like her older sisters, that day they finally began to grow was most likely not for a while and it was KILLING her. She did wear a bra under her shirt every day anyways, but it was just simply there, not supporting anything. Lola had begun worrying about much more than having a pretty face. Having _just_ a pretty face wasn't going to get her anywhere. She was nearly eleven years old. That was about the right age to start dating, right? Some of her older sisters didn't know what they HAD, and they could be so pretty with just a bit of mascara and maybe something other than those godforsaken basketball shorts...ugh. Exasperating.

Sometimes Lola really missed back when Leni lived at home, and wasn't in New York, working as a fashion designer for some big company that had come across her work. Lola knew it was selfish, but she wanted her older sister to come back home, to give her advice on why it didn't matter that there were prettier girls on the internet, and just someone to secretly gossip about who would look super pretty in a particular dress Leni was in the middle of sketching out. Luan was the closest thing Lola had to a real sister in the house at this point, and she just...she couldn't take the jokes. Lola would actually rather ram her head into a wall than listen to more horrible jokes.

Because she had nobody to talk to about fashion or makeup, Lola had turned to blatantly stating her opinions. She didn't hold back, and she was VERY honest about how she felt certain people should dress, or do their hair and makeup. Her sisters had gotten fed up with it, so now Lola was trying to restrict her deprecating comments. But, when Lola tried to share her _wisdom_ with her sisters, even a comment as subtle as, "You know, a little bit of pink eyeshadow is really going to make your eyes pop," or "That hair length really doesn't suit your face shape," they never listened, and quite often she was told, "Shut up, Lola." They all just REFUSED her help. Even her _identical_ _twin_ Lana, who was just getting more dirty and rough and masculine, refused assistance, even though Lola could totally tell she had a crush on Skippy. And had since they were SIX.

She didn't understand why almost none of her sisters cared about what people thought of them. Luan, as a comedian, should thrive on public judgement and ridicule, but no, she had to be noble and claim all she wanted to do was get a chuckle out of the occasional person. Lola simply couldn't fathom how Luan cared so little about the opinions of others that she was willing to experiment with her makeup; instead of traditional winged eyeliner putting poorly painted little flowers by the edges of her eyes, or wearing highly vibrant hot pink lipstick with a confidence only found in, well...pageant queens. Wasted potential, which truly was one of Lola's pet peeves. If someone was pretty, she or he should automatically try to accentuate their best features. It's not like it was hard. The internet made it SO easy.

Lola looked down at the tablet she shared with her sister, reaching out for the device. Her blue eyes contained an emotion that would almost be described as fear, but it was far more than simple fright. What would she see next on her social media feed? Any negative comments? Oh, lord, she hoped not.

As if on cue, her mother's voice rang through the hallways. "Kids, dinner time!" Lola looked across the room at her sister, who was putting her frog in her shirt pocket, and dropped the tablet onto her bed.

"Ugh, you're bringing your frog to the table?" Lola scoffed, rolling her eyes. Why was she surprised?


End file.
